The Work Of The Gods In Tikopia

Download or read book The Work of the Gods in Tikopia written by Raymond Firth and published by Berg Publishers. This book was released on 1967-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1939 and long out of print, this book remains unique as the only full and detailed account by a social anthropologist of a complete pagan Polynesian ritual cycle. This new single-volume edition omits some of the Tikopia vernacular texts, but includes a new theoretical introduction; postscripts have also been supplied to some of the chapters comparing the performances of 1928-9 with those witnessed by Professor Firth on his second visit to Tikopia in 1952. There is a specially written Epilogue on the final eclipse of the traditional ritual, based on a third visit by the author during the summer of 1966.